Felting needles are not new, and I draw particular attention to my own prior issued U.S. Pat. Nos.:
3,913,189 (1975); 3,479,708 (1969); 3,224,067 (1965); PA0 3,844,004 (1974); 3,390,440 (1968); 2,696,035 (1954); PA0 3,815,186 (1974); 3,353,243 (1967); 2,391,560 (1945); PA0 3,641,636 (1972); 3,307,238 (1967); 2,349,086 (1944).
As is evident, it is not new to make felting needles of triangular cross-section with tapered points and to have the barb disposed in the blade portion along the ridge between the adjacent faces of the triangular cross-section. See particularly my above U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,913,189; 3,844,004; 3,185,186; 3,641,636 and others.
However, none of the prior art disclosures shows a felting needle with the barb disposed in the tapered point portion, nor does any of the prior art show a barb, having a throat parallel to the axis of the needle with the throat extending into the tapered point portion. Nor does the art show a barb like that disclosed in my U.S. Pat No. 3,815,186 wherein the barb is on the point of the needle. All of the prior art, including my own patents, show that the barb is formed in a portion of the blade by cutting, striking, indenting or otherwise upsetting the metal to create a notch having an upset tip and wherein the throat is disposed at an angle to the axis of the blade (i.e., the longitudinal or major axis of the needle).
Moreover, the art in this field, crowded as it is, showing needles and structures with the barbs disposed in the blade portion of the needle, create a needle where the tip of the point is disposed at some distance from the first barb, thus requiring the tip of the needle to pass well into the material before the first barb engages the fibers, and requiring an unnecessarily long travel of the needle in an axial direction, and also requiring that the tip of the needle pass a substantial distance beyond the material, sometime into a hole in the bed-plate before the first of the barbs sufficiently engages the lower fibers of the material to create the desired felting action in the web of the material.
Additionally, the needles in this crowded field, having barbs struck into the side of the blade, and having upset tips on the face of the barbs, force the fibers to move laterally in order to enter the throat of the barb as the needle penetrates the material. The fibers must also move laterally outwardly as the needle is withdrawn from the material. Such lateral movement causes an unnecessary flexing or bending of the needle, irregularities and non-uniformities in the material, and weakening of the needles, leading to breaking of the needles, especially if the material needled is waste material such as "shoddy" having a variety of synthetic fibers, all of which are more difficult to handle in the needle-punching operation.